Religion: Last Stronghold

To the Christian churches of the U. S., feminists give much credit for the emancipation of U. S. women. Yet in church matters women are still denied equality with men. A few large churches* ordain women as ministers, but few women ever get important appointments as pastors.

Last week, Dr. Georgia Harkness, one of the ablest of U. S. female divines, let off a little steam on the subject, as she does periodically.

A rich-voiced, grey-haired Methodist minister who seldom mounts a pulpit, Miss Harkness teaches philosophy at Mount Holyoke College, is rated a top-notcher among U. S. theologians. Last week, calling the church “the last stronghold of male dominance,” she told a Methodist Leadership School at Lake Junaluska, N. C.: “The fact that women frequently put their energies into channels which lie outside the church is often deplored by men who have the interests of the church at heart. . . . These other agencies offer women an opportunity for leadership, for creative expression . . . and in turn a recognition which they do not find within the church. Until the men of the church recognize this fact, to deplore the defection of women will largely be wasted breath.”

*Methodist, Congregational-Christian, Northern Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Quaker.